“In My Life” from Rubber Soul
“In My Life” is one of the most critically acclaimed Beatles songs, and one that John Lennon himself, so exacting and self-critical, called “my first real major piece of work.” The song was written in 1965, in part spurred by a conversation he had with a British journalist named Kenneth Allsop. Commenting in the David Sheff biography All We Are Saying, Lennon talked about the song:
I think “In My Life” was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life, and it was sparked by a remark a journalist and writer in England [Allsop] made after ‘[Lennon’s book] In His Own Write came out…. But he said to me, “Why don’t you put some of the way you write in the book, as it were, in the songs? Or why don’t you put something about your childhood into the songs?” Which came out later as “Penny Lane” from Paul – although it was actually me who lived in Penny Lane – and “Strawberry Fields.”
John Lennon on “In My Life”
Lennon first started writing lyrics as if he were on a bus from home, mentioning all the things he saw. He quickly saw that this was not working. From the same interview for All We Are Saying:
And it was ridiculous…. [I]t was the most boring sort of “What I Did on My Holidays Bus Trip” song and it wasn’t working at all. I cannot do this! I cannot do this!
But then I laid back and these lyrics started coming to me about the places I remember. Now Paul helped write the middle-eight melody. The whole lyrics were already written before Paul had even heard it…. [His contribution melodically was the harmony and the middle eight itself].
Recording “In My Life”
When it came time to record the finished song in the studio, Lennon asked producer George Martin if he could write a Baroque-influenced piano solo for the song. Martin did this with beautiful Bach-sounding section that he could not play well at the tempo of “In My Life.” So, as an experiment, the solo was recorded at half speed, then played back at full speed and higher in pitch. It sounded not like a piano, but a harpsichord, and it worked memorably.
The song’s origin has often sparked speculation, parlor game style, about who Lennon was writing about. He never spoke of this, but years later Yoko Ono said that John wrote it for Paul. And over the years, it has been covered by innumerable artists, including Bette Midler. She didn’t sing “In My Life” then, but it would have fit.
What Can We Learn?
In challenging times our task is somehow to continue to do what we can, day by day, to be whole. Perhaps this can be nurtured by some reflection on “the people and things” that have mattered to us, that can help sustain us when it can feel like we are in basic survival mode.
Tim Hatfield
Discover the meaning behind Beatles songs and how we can apply these lessons in our own lives in Tim’s great book.
